An article/blog entry from Philippines-based GAME! Magazine stated that there seems to be a confusion as to Hellgate: London’s pricing. The question: is the game free to play or not?

You see, IP E-games, an MMO publisher based in the Philippines, previously announced that it has “acquired the rights to Hellgate,” though no other details were revealed.

See, there’s the rub.

IP E-games uses a “free-to-play forever” business model for the MMOs that it publishes. The company’s revenue is primarily generated from the e-points that its patrons purchase. Well, Hellgate isn’t explicitly an MMO because of its single player component, but it does play like one with heavy instancing.

From the looks of things, Hellgate is one of the strangest brews we’ve ever seen. It has a single player campaign that comes complete with a story and missions. Hellgate also has free multiplayer, and that feature is similar to MMOs.

However, Hellgate also has an optional subscription service that would give you access to additional content on an ongoing basis (e.g. quests, character classes, demons, items, etc.). That means that you can still enjoy Hellgate with your friends, but if you want to take advantage of new content and other perks, you have to cough up the money.

I’m just curious though as to how IP E-Games will handle sales. Would the publisher give away copies of Hellgate just like its previous titles, or would it sell each copy?

I’m expecting Hellgate to be worth at least $49 in North America. If IP E-games sells each copy of Hellgate, then it has to ditch its “free-to-play forever” catchphrase and sell the game for over PHP2,000, which is way beyond the budget of its average patron.

I’d also like to know how the publisher would also handle the premium updates. If say my prepaid e-points ran out, would that mean I won’t get any new updates until I purchase more e-points? What if I was in the middle of updating my client?

Stay tuned for more updates on Hellgate. We just might get the answers soon enough.

Post from: EveryJoe

Hellgate’s pricing causes confusion and more questions